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Levy-Lees

The Levy-Lees inverse transform maps the Falkner-Skan similarity coordinate \(\eta\) back to the physical wall-normal coordinate \(y\).

The Levy-Lees coordinate used in the Falkner-Skan derivation is

\[ \eta = \frac{u_e}{\sqrt{2\xi}}\int_0^y \rho\,dy' \]

with

\[ \xi = \int_0^x \rho_e \mu_e u_e\,dx' \]

For a power-law edge velocity \(u_e = Cx^m\), and with \(\rho_e\mu_e\) constant over the local similarity station,

\[ \xi = \rho_e\mu_e\int_0^x Cx'^m\,dx' \]
\[ \xi = \rho_e\mu_e C\frac{x^{m+1}}{m+1} \]

Using \(u_e = Cx^m\),

\[ \xi = \frac{\rho_e\mu_e u_e x}{m+1} \]

Differentiate the Levy-Lees coordinate with respect to \(y\) at fixed \(x\):

\[ \frac{\partial \eta}{\partial y} = \frac{u_e}{\sqrt{2\xi}}\rho \]

Substitute \(\rho = \rho_e/\tau\):

\[ \frac{\partial \eta}{\partial y} = \frac{\rho_e u_e}{\tau\sqrt{2\xi}} \]

Now substitute the power-law expression for \(\xi\):

\[ \frac{\partial \eta}{\partial y} = \frac{1}{\tau}\frac{\rho_e u_e}{\sqrt{2\rho_e\mu_e u_e x/(m+1)}} \]

Collecting terms gives

\[ \frac{\partial \eta}{\partial y} = \frac{1}{\tau}\sqrt{\frac{(m+1)\rho_e u_e}{2\mu_e x}} \]

Therefore the Levy-Lees inverse scale is

\[ \eta_{s,LL} = \sqrt{\frac{(m+1)\rho_e u_e}{2\mu_e x}} \]

and the physical coordinate is

\[ y(\eta) = \frac{1}{\eta_{s,LL}}\int_0^\eta \tau(\hat{\eta})\,d\hat{\eta} \]